Ask Angel Reese, and she’ll say Hailey Van Lith needed Sunday evening.

She needed it not only to help LSU build momentum with a 99-68 win over Arkansas but also for the confidence she extracted from a productive, efficient outing. Van Lith notched 20 points, six assists, five rebounds, a pair of blocks and only one turnover.

The performance was Van Lith’s best of her up-and-down season with the No. 9 Tigers.

She set season-high totals in field goal attempts (18) and rebounds. She tied her season-high in points. And for just the fourth time this year, she tallied at least five assists with just one turnover.

“I’ve known Hailey for a little while now, and I know her game,” Reese said. “She has sacrificed a lot, of course, leaving from Louisville and scoring 20-25 points a game and then coming here and transitioning to a point guard. It’s tough.”

In three seasons at Louisville, Van Lith scored at least 20 points in 31 games, and she took at least 18 shots on 17 occasions.

But across her first 15 games at LSU, she eclipsed 20 points just once, and she never took more than 14 shots in a game. Although Van Lith has maintained her overall shooting percentage (41%) and increased her 3-point efficiency, her scoring average plummeted by more than eight points because she was attempting seven fewer field goals per game.

Van Lith had to fight through some growing pains. She was playing a new position, running a new post-oriented offense and integrating into a star-studded lineup. But if Sunday was any indication, those early struggles may be behind her, just in time for No. 1 South Carolina to visit the Pete Maravich Assembly Center on Thursday.

“Yeah, I was not happy,” Van Lith said on Jan. 11 after LSU beat Texas A&M. “I still obviously can get better at honing in those things. But it’s a process for everybody, and I’m committed to it.”

LSU guard Hailey Van Lith (11) drives to the hoop against Arkansas guard Makayla Daniels (43) in the third period on Sunday, January 21, 2024 at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

STAFF PHOTO BY MICHAEL JOHNSON

The opportunity to play point guard was one of the things that attracted Van Lith to LSU after she entered the transfer portal. As she outlined before the season, she wanted to grow and expand her game in Baton Rouge and prove to WNBA scouts that she was more than just a scorer.

This season, Van Lith’s turnovers are down slightly — from 3.7 to 2.8 per game — and her assist average is up — from 3.2 to 4.6 per game.

But her scoring has taken a significant hit, and after LSU lost to Auburn on Jan. 14, a series of video clips circulated on social media showing Van Lith standing wide open beyond the 3-point arc — waiting for passes that never arrived — while Reese and Aneesah Morrow fought for buckets inside.

That day, Van Lith shot just 1 of 9 from the floor and scored three points.

“I think for a little while there I was trying to fit into a mold that isn’t necessarily my game,” Van Lith said on Jan. 11. “And now I’m finding ways for me to be aggressive, but also mostly just playmaking. I’m not necessarily looking to take more shots. It’s just, like, if that’s the right read, then I should shoot it, and I think I’m just getting a lot more comfortable with making that read.”

The game against South Carolina provides Van Lith an opportunity to find out exactly how comfortable she really is. The Gamecocks sport the best defensive rating in the country, and they’ve allowed their opponents to shoot just 29% from the field.

It’s why Van Lith needed the Arkansas game to rediscover her scoring touch before LSU’s toughest test of the season.

“And I know it’s hard from the outside and all the noise on the outside,” Reese said, “but she’s never let that get to her. She’s been dialed in from the beginning, and she’s taken on that role. Whenever she messes up, when she doesn’t make a shot, she turns the ball over, she always takes accountability.”